Only A Few Steps From Hell, And Then Straight On Till Freedom
by Mr. Blu- All Will Be Well
Summary: When Titans break through Wall Maria, everyone thinks its over. But when somebody's favorite butler rescues someone's favorite angry main character's mom from Titans...ON HIATUS.
1. Prologue

A knock at her door woke Amber Ackerman with a start. Turning on the lamp that stood on her nightstand, the young woman got out of bed and ran to her kitchen, pulling a knife out of a drawer. Another knock startled her. She approached the door ever so slightly and locked her hand around the doorknob. The door creaked open and there, in the rain and wind, stood...

"Sebastian?" she said, the butler's coat and unique hairstyle instantly recognizable.

A chuckle escaped Sebastian's throat.

"Yes, my dear," he replied, in that venomously calm voice of his.

Her surprise quickly fading, Amber hardened her features and looked up at the towering butler, scowling.

"Why're you here? You know I'm not taking you back. I'm married now,' Amber growled.

Sebastian almost snorted that time. He was nothing if not easily amused.

"You should be nicer, Amber. I walked instead of taking horse, just to come and see you. Isn't that considerate?" The butler made his best attempt at puppy eyes.

Amber's face didn't loosen up.

"I know it was just to have more free time before having to go back to Ciel and the imbeciles. I'm not stupid, Sebastian," the woman retorted, having heard this all before.

Noticing the basket in the man's right hand, she asked, "What's in the basket?"

"Oh, well I suppose I did have a reason for coming."

He handed Amber the basket. Within sat a sleeping baby.

The woman's eyes widened, while Sebastian's mouth curled into a smile.

"No", Amber whispered. "You told me she died!"

"Dead or not, she's yours," The butler replied. "I already have a child to take care of."

"Wait, wha-" Amber started, but in a flash Sebastian was gone.

"SEBASTIAN!" She yelled. "Damn British bastard..."

She read the tag on the basket containing her new child.

_Mikasa Ackerman._


	2. To You, In 2,000 Years

I_ can see you, little girl..._

_N-no! Go away!_

_Just remember...daddy will always be here for you...Wherever you are...I will be at your side..._

_Until the end._

_Until the end._

"Mikasa! MIKASA!"

The nine year old girl awakened from her stupor to see the caramel skinned face of Carla Yaeger. Where was she? Outside the house...Eren had run off...Eren! Mikasa started to run off in the direction her brother had gone, but Carla grabbed her arm before she could leave.

"Mikasa," she said, with a worried look in her eyes. "The boy needs to be protected from himself. Promise me wherever he goes you'll have his back."

She responded with a simple nod. In a moment she was off. She searched every dusty corner, every web-filled nook and cranny. She asked the candyman, she asked the strange, grey-haired funeral parlorman, she even asked the local bullies if they could tell her where Eren had gone, threatening them with a mighty fine beating if they wouldn't tell her. Finally she got the answer.

He was with Armin and Ashley.

Armin was a relatively new face. Mikasa had only met him about a year ago, and she liked him a lot. He wasn't much help in fighting off bullies, gathering firewood or really any task that required physical effort, but the boy had one hell of a brain on him. It seemed that his brain was rather useful in stalling people assaulting him until she and Eren could bring the rain. His sister Ashley, however, was a different story. She was a bombastic, exploding-with-emotion grenade. She often popped off when she wasn't quite supposed to, which got her and Armin beaten up more than they should be.

When she finally found her brother, Armin, and Ashley, she also saw the same bullies she'd threatened for information a few hours earlier unconscious. Her friends were all staring up at something. Upon closer examination, they were all staring up at someone. A very tall someone. A very tall someone radiating cold.

He was a man. Dressed in a fanciful black butler's outfit from head to toe and back again, his face and eyes were blocked from view by his messy black hair, and...and a permeating, black fog. Every few seconds, black feathers with an ethereal glow to them would fall out of the sky and land at his feet. They would then quickly disintegrate into a dust that would flow towards him and vanish into the soles of his shoes.

But the most disturbing thing about the ghostly black-dressed figure before Mikasa was the familiar feeling that she'd _seen_ him before. Looking upon the spotless shoes and coattails flapping in the wind silently was like looking...looking at an old photograph of her and a dear friend. It was like looking at an aunt or an uncle and recognizing which wrinkles had faded from their aged faces and which were "new"(An odd habit Mikasa herself had adopted.).

Then he spoke.

"You're quite welcome, young man. And I trust you'll give my regards to your sister?"

"Uhm," Eren spoke up next. "I guess so, Mr...?"

"Sebastian," the man said." Sebastian Michaelis. Would you like to know a secret, children?'

She had to intervene. Whoever this "Sebastian" was, she had the feeling he wasn't the least bit friendly. Walking over to the alley which Sebastian stood in, she stopped right in between him and Eren.

"Mikasa? Why di-," Eren started, but she silenced him with a quick look.

"We don't like secrets," Mikasa said to the butler. Why don't you scamper off and leave us be?"

A look that Mikasa couldn't even begin to process came over Sebastian's now-revealed, red-eyed face when he saw her. It looked like a mask someone might wear if they'd just lost everything they lived for. Everything they could possibly have lived for, snatched away in a single instant, with not a moment to grieve before they were called off to fight the endless battles of life.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," She said, her voice unwavering.

And then he was gone in a flash of feathers and fog. Within the great black cloud rested a single candy wrapper, labeled with the famous Funtom logo. Armin's hands found it, his eyes widened with excitement as he showed it to his friends.

"You don't think," he started. "That's _the_ butler, do you?"

Now Ashley's face was bright as well.

"You mean the one that serves Ciel Phantomhive? The kid that owns Funtom?"

"Yes!" Armin replied. "The one that does anything his master tells him to! If he says to do it, sooner or later it gets done!"

"And the real kick is," Eren said. "He's not any older than us!"

Eager to change the subject, Mikasa asked," So, you guys want to walk down to the canal?"

Armin's face drooped slightly. Apparently he'd found meeting the Phantomhive butler quite exciting. It was only for a moment, however. Soon his smile returned.

"Yeah, I guess. C'mon, Ashley!"

The blonde boy grabbed his sister by the arm, pulling her along on the way to the canals. Eren and Mikasa followed, hot on the other two's heels as they charged forward.

When they were there, Armin plopped himself down on the cornerstone of a stairway. He removed a large, dusty old book bound in light brown leather. The book's girth almost caused Armin to fall off the cornerstone. After righting himself, he yelled over to his friends.

"Hey, guys!" He called. "Comeover here. I've got something I've been working on that I'd like to show you!"

When they'd finally caught up with their genius friend, they all sat down in front of Armin and watched as her showed them drawings from his book.

They were unlike anything Mikasa had ever seen. One was an umfathomably huge mountain of rocks that were made from frozen water. None lived there, for if they tried they would become part of the very place they'd called home for such a small amount of time. Armin called this a "_glacier_". The next was a group of trees, but not just any trees. These mighty plants touched the skies with their tips, and held within their ranks a score of different species of both flora and fauna. They were like cities in the wilds. These, Armin said, were called "_forests."_ The third anomaly of nature was a sea of dirt, but granulated and tan. It was said to scorch those unprepared to enter, with only the toughest and hardiest living within its borders.

"Those are deserts," Armin stated.

Another drawing showed Mikasa's least favorite. It was a glowing giant, a great gash in the ground like a cut in a steak. The mountain spewed fire and ash upon those who came near, and offered no reason or told a story of a great empire who had angered one of these earthbound gods, and many a city was buried beneath their wrath, which sent lava flying skyward onto the heads of those who displeased it. This was the _"volcano."_

The final drawing yielded a scene of absolute tranquility and surreal beauty. It was a vast field of water, with no end in sight. Down into the field was a world beneath worlds. A dimension of weightless, floating life. A dimension where the bones of the dead and the living joined as one to make cities filled with life even more fantastical than that you'd find on another planet. Because in a sense, this _was_ another planet. No place on earth could hold such infinite, indefinite peace.

Nothing like these could ever be possible within the walls.

"These're just stories my grandfather told me about. He says that his father told him them. He had them all in a big book that got lost a while ago, that's a lot like this 're supposed to be about the world outside the walls. The one the Titans stole from us."

Eren's eye narrowed, his rage from the argument with Hannes that morning returning. He closed his eye and breathed deeply. This wasn't the time.

"So Armin," Mikasa interjected. "Why'd those guys come after you? Eren's mom sent me out to look for him, and I ended up finding out where you were from them. Didn't think they'd be dumb enough to come after you again, knowing how much they hate me."

"Oh, well," Armin started. "They just heard me talking about how humanity's future lies outside the walls. I guess they didn't want to have anybody abandon what's now common human ideal: that we can't beat them and why fight when we have our walls?"

Apparently Eren's deep breathing hadn't helped much.

" Well I say to hell with them!" He raged. "Why can't they just let us dream?!"

"Someone's going to hear you,"Mikasa replied, her words cutting through Eren's rant like butter.

Armin intervened before the situation got out of hand.

"No, Mikasa, its ok," he said before turning to Eren. "The walls are a powerful idea. Humans have survived for a whole century because of them. I know your problem with this whole conversation. I don't like it either. The fact that people will give up much of their personal freedom for even a fleeting sense of security is unsettling. And make no mistake, it absolutely is fleeting." Armin's voice became little more than a whisper. "Those walls can't hold forever."

What scared Mikasa about that, was that Armin was completely, one hundred percent correct. No wall could withstand the passing of time indefinitely. Sooner or later, there would be some Titan or some architectural mistake or some error in military operations that would open Wall Maria. And every soul knew what was on the other side of Wall Maria.

An earshattering clap of thunder tossed her from where she sat, the force of the sound like every cannon on every wall had suddenly fired and brought down the sky on her, and destroyed everything in an explosion of noise. Through her squinted eyes, Mikasa saw a golden lighting bolt streaking down from the heavens and striking the ground below, so bright it turned the surrounding sunlight a dark, green color.

And then she saw it. The harbinger of death by the thousands.

A giant, red, skinless hand was clutching Wall Maria in its fingers. The hand glowed and steamed like the volcanoes Armin had been telling them about, just a few minutes ago. But that was ages ago, a lifetime ago. Back when they were safe.

_'Make no mistake, it absolutely is fleeting,'_ Armin had said.

They'd never been safe.

The giant hand squeezed the wall and with it's colossal strength, crushed a small upper portion of it, where the defensive cannons were.

Then the monster attached to it showed itself. It was a Titan alright, but not any Titan that they'd seen in history books. The mouth of the creature stretched up its face to almost be adjacent to its ear. Pink muscle, similar to the red muscle, was over its mouth to give the illusion of lips. The head was skinless, like the hand, with no hair. The Titan's eyes were surrounded by the shadow from its eye sockets, but one could say they held some sort of intelligence. But bye far, the most startling aspect of the Titan was it sheer _size._

According to most military records, Wall Maria was fifty meters high. 164 feet a Titan would have to climb to get at its only food source. And by the time it hand started, the Garrison Regiment would have long since learned it was there and shot it down with cannon fire.

Everyone who saw this...Colossal Titan... surely had that at the back of there minds.

"Is that..." Ashley said. "Is that a Titan?"

"No...no...no.." Armin whispered. "That wall's fifty meters high!"

'_Oh, god...'_ Eren thought. He _really_ hoped Hannes had taken his advice and gotten prepared for a fight.

A rumbling sound brought everyone out of their thoughts.

And then, the gate into Shiganshina burst open in a flying bombardment of rock, metal, and human. giant boulders began to fall out of the sky, landing on people, houses, even the wall. Fires began to erupt. Eren could see a giant gash in Wall Maria leading to the outside world.

And every soul knew what was in the outside world.

Soon what was once out, was in.

Titans. A lot of them.

Soon Mikasa could hear screams. Screams of poor, unsuspecting souls, souls that held fear in their hearts. Then she heard chomping, the sound of bones breaking, of blood spattering the ground of her hometown. She could hear people's hearts stop.

It wasn't going to happen to her.

She looked around. Where was Eren? She need to get him out of here! Didn't he understand? He-oh, no. He hadn't tried to fight, had he?

"ARMIN!" she called over the ensuing slaughter of her fellow human beings. "WHERE'S EREN?!"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Armin called back. "HE SAID HE HAD TO GO BACK HOME! WHEREVER HE IS, I'M GOING FOR HELP!"

Back at home? But...that was closer to the broken gate than they were! He'd be eaten alive!

Mikasa ran, ran like hell, ran as fast as the eleven-year old legs she had would allow her to run. The sights on the way...she almost had to stop and vomit. One man had evidently been caught in the middle of a criminal act, and the one who had caught him was letting it go easy. It evolved into a fistfight before a Titan bent down and bit them both in two. Another woman simply had to look on as a Titan swallowed her infant child whole and then crushed her in its grip. Yet another Titan had three adults in its hands, which it shamelessly ripped in half, and then slurped the organs out of their retired husks before throwing them to the ground.

Finally through all the carnage, Mikasa finally made it to the Yaeger house. It had been crushed, by Titan or boulder she didn't know, only that Eren was there, desperately trying to lift a beam. Under said beam was the still living form of Carla Yaeger. As usual, mother and son argued.

"It doesn't matter! I'll carry you!" Eren yelled. Tears began to stream down his face as he realized that his mother was going to die, and Mikasa's heart broke, both for him and herself.

"WOULD YOU JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!" Carla yelled back. The yelling was cut short by stomping sound nearby. All three looked over and saw a Titan, a blonde beast with a huge grin splitting its face. Then Eren saw her.

"Mikasa!" He screamed. "Don't just stand there! Help me get her OUT!"

For the first time since her parents had been murdered, Mikasa didn't know what to do. If she tried to help Eren, they'd all die. If she didn't, he'd never forgive her. Her saving grace came in the form of Hannes, speeding in on his OMD Gear's cables. Drawing his blades, the blonde man yelled a swift, "Be right back!" before charging off after the Titan.

He stopped abruptly, looking for all the world like the Devil himself was staring at him through the Titan's eyes. Its cold, unthinking, unfeeling eyes. That might as well have been the truth, from the way Hannes was looking at it. He dropped his blades in fear, his eyes unable to leave the grinning face of the monstrosity before him.

The Garrison Regiment member ran back to the crushed house. While still running, he snatched both Eren and Mikasa from the wreckage as the Titan continued its inexorable walk towards Carla.

"NO! GO BACK!" Eren yelled, pounding on Hannes's back, but the man's resolve was strong and so Eren was ignored. " WE CAN STILL PULL HER OUT!"

Tears were streaming out of Carla's eyes as Mikasa looked back, through ashes and her own tears.

"I LOVE YOU BOTH!" she called."DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

Mikasa couldn't hear her, she couldn't hear Eren, she couldn't hear the hearts, she couldn't hear anything. It was happening again. Her mother was going to die before her very eyes for the second time. And there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it. There wasn't a _damn thing_ she could do about it! She just had to sit there and watch.

The smiling Titan picked Carla up, wood and stone falling back onto the crushed house.

Then in lifted her to its mouth...and barely had time to die before a figure jumped up into the air and slashed apart its nape, coattails flapping about. The great beast's eyes rolled back in its head as it fell on its knees and collapsed, slain. The figure in black caught Carla's unharmed but still unable to walk body in his arms, falling to the ground with no sound. Black, glowing feathers began to fall around him, making it almost look like he had skeletal wings emerging from his back.

A thick, black fog rolled in at his feet.

"If I couldn't do this much for my dear daughter, at least," Sebastian said, the crimson gleam in his eyes ever present. "What kind of butler would I be?"

**TO ALL MY DEAR VIEWERS...I HAVE RETURNED.**


	3. That Day

Carla didn't know where she was. The sun was so bright... it was too bright...no. The light came from fires raging across Shiganshina, sparked from boulders that crushed it populace and architecture alike. It blinded her. Why was there fire? There shouldn't be any fire...not here at least. There shouldn't be a gash in the wall that allowed mankind's greatest enemy free reign over what was to them a buffet.

There shouldn't be Titans devouring people in the streets, before the very eyes of her children. It made Carla sick. No child should be subjected to such horror as that these monsters could bring.

Who...who was carrying her? She didn't need to be carried, her legs weren't broken-her legs. A thousand red hot needles jammed into her legs at any and all angles. She almost yelled. But she could feel hot tears run slowly down her ash smeared cheeks. They were gone. All of them. Everyone she'd ever known that wasn't bound to her by blood, had theirs spilled across the ground or marring the teeth of a Titan.

All of them gone.

Grisha was gone. Her one love in this world.

Gone.

And then, for Carla Yaeger, all thought ceased as the wears and tears of that horrendously tragic day brought her to sleep.

**PHANTOMHIVE ESTATE **

"Young Master!" Finny called down the hallway almost sparkling with cleanliness. The sound of the Australian teenager's voice reached down the Manor, up the Manor, through the Manor. It reached every single nook and cranny, every single spider that had somehow managed to escape that infernal insect repellant they so hated heard the Phantomhive gardener's cry. Every unpainted corner heard the sound and reveled in the servant's incompetence allowing them to remain in their sour, unorderly state.

Unfortunately, the sound also reached the ten-year-old Ciel Phantomhive Jr.'s ears. The young Earl was already in a bad mood, a growl coming from his lips. Regaining his composure, Ciel breathed deeply and called for Finny to come to the office room. The blonde Australian was sweaty, his shirt sticking to his back.

"Yes, Finny?" The boy with the eyepatch asked.

"Well..." The Gardener stuttered, twiddling his thumbs behind his back.

"Finny..." Ciel said, his voice very low. He'd tried his best to give them chances to _not_ be imbeciles, like Sebastian said. It was...teeth-gritting. Finny, of course, was aware of the advice Sebastian had given the Young Master pertaining to them, and so he shaped up quite fast..

"Well, Bardruoy was out with Sebastian buying food for the meal tonight in Calaneth District, remember? Bardruoy's back, but Sebastian's nowhere to be found. And..."

Then the Cook with the cigar that had just been mentioned came barging through the door, his hat about to fly off and his voice a yell.

"AND WE ONLY LEFT SO EARLY BECAUSE BLOOMIN' TITANS STARTED RUNNING THROUGH THE HOUSES!"

Ciel sat up as abruptly as one could, almost knocking down his mahogany colored chair as fear filled his eye.

"Then we...we..." The boy was at a loss for words.

Then stomping, slow stomping that shook the Manor with every step, signaled death for all.

**GATE FROM SHIGANSHINA INTO WALL MARIA**

Captain Arik Buford was at a loss as to what to do. Titans in the walls? No one alive had seen a Titan! People didn't know how to fight them, how to survive, where to go, what to do. That was their greatest weapon, their ability to turn calm order into a cluster of madness and uproar.

All in all, however, Arik and his squad were holding the delicate Cannon defense together well enough.

The hope that had begun to blossom in the Captain's heart died a swift death when he saw it.

He was a Titan, alright, but not like any Titan Arik had seen. For starters, the monster was far more muscular and well proportioned than his kin. He, like the massive Titan that had first breached the gate into Shiganshina, did not appear to have skin. Instead, he had golden plates covering most of his body in a variety of patterns. The rest of the exposed skin was a dark red color. He had a face similar to a machine, with two plates of "armor" resting an inch or so away from each other to create the illusion of a mouth. Gray hair covered the top of its head, and yellow, glowing eyes that lacked pupils stared at Arik with a foreboding look to them.

The creature took the stance of a sprinter preparing for a run. He was more imposing than ever, with his eyes shadowed by the large brows that were above them, his golden "armor" and his muscled physique.

Then the Titan broke into a run. The armored creature ran so fast glass shattered in houses three streets away from him. His massive feet crushed some off the smaller Titans lumbering in front of him, destroying the debaucherous mockeries of human beings beneath him. Arik was frozen for a long, long moment, watching the Titan get closer and closer at an alarming rate. Then suddenly, coated in sweat, he came to.

"FIRE!" he yelled at those operating the cannons. "FIRE UNTIL YOU HAVE TO LOAD THE DAMN THING WITH PEBBLES!"

The cannons rang with approval, and fired shot after shot at the armored monstrosity closing in on the inner gate to Wall Maria. The cannonballs either bounced off the creature's shell or shattered themselves on it, smoking wreathing the Titan, but otherwise there was nothing the cannonballs changed. He continued his charge toward the gate, and nobody could do anything to stop him.

Arik ran like hell.

But the Titan, being far larger than any human being, easily overtook the Garrison Regiment Captain and his squadron. The gate from Shiganshina into the lands behind Wall Maria exploded in a shower of stone, smoke, cannons, and soldiers. However, the damage inflicted upon the massive door was far less than that which destroyed the one into Shiganshina from the outside world, so there was not a fallout of boulders that crushed the populace and structures alike.

Nevertheless, Wall Maria was open.

The whole scene was viewed by seven souls, crowded in with other nameless refugees that the military had crowded in to a boat on the canal: Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Ashley, Carla, Sebastian, and Martin Arlert, Armin's grandfather.

"Thank you, Mr...?"Carla winced, her legs still blazing with pain despite the splints Sebastian had made from rubble in the streets.

"Sebastian," The butler replied, doing a low bow due to the lack of space. "It was not any trouble at all."

"Not any trouble at all? said Martin. "You saved all five of them! You did a damn good job, mister!" He slapped Sebastian on the back, which earned him a look of surprise from the butler, quickly glossed over by his usual calm disposition.

But elsewhere in the little group, dark thoughts spread like wildfire.

_'That...that was too close,'_ Eren thought, quivering from the massacre he'd bared witness to. '_Mom almost... she almost died! We all almost died! But at least she's alright. That 'Sebastian' guy is weird. I mean, I'm grateful he saved her and all, but I've never seen anybody so skilled-wait, I've never seen anybody fight a Titan ever! What am I saying? Dad's probably seen a few peo-Oh, god..."_

He'd forgotten all about his father. Gone. A week?! On the day the Titans broke through Wall Maria?! He wouldn't last a few hours out there! Subconsciously, thoughts of his father, bitten in half by Titans filled his mind. Immediately, the Germanic boy was queasy, and doubled over the side of the boat to let loose a stream of vomit from his mouth.

"Eren!" Armin said, taking hold of his friend. "You ok?"

Forcefully Eren removed the blonde boy's hand from his shoulder while simultaneously wiping his mouth. Although Armin couldn't see, Eren could feel them. Tears. Streaming down his face and pooling at his feet as they fell. Then came the sniffles. They were uncontrollable, unruly. His face became sorrowful as he looked up at Armin, eyes still watering. Nobody out of the others even knew what was going on.

"I-I'm fine Armin," he choked out. "But my dad...he's gone..."

Armin seemed taken aback, as if he should move away. But it didn't deter him. He hugged his friend, on the verge of sobbing himself.

"Oh, Eren," he whispered. "I...I'm so sorry...I reall-"

Then it came. That ever present, powerful fire within Eren's heart. His great rage. He shoved Armin off of him, his face shadowed by his hair. His hands found the edge of the boat, gripping them as if he intended to cleanly rip them off the boat altogether.

"I've got to put a stop to this!" He growled, his tears becoming hot and his face contorting into a mask that embodied fury itself. Eren's eyes held some of that fire that was his rage within them, mitigated by the water of his sorrow.

"I'll kill them all!" He half snarled and half sobbed. "_Every last one."_

**BEHIND WALL ROSE**

Ciel was furious.

Having to be handed food like a commoner?! In some damn rations line? The whole ordeal was rather indignifying, and he wished he didn't have to stand amidst dirty, chewed-up-clothes refugees from Wall Maria and Shiganshina. These people weren't even on his level. Why should he have to be among them like he was one of them?

And so he decided to do something about it.

Marching over to some of the soldiers keeping the refugees in check, he said, "I am Ciel Phantomhive, Owner Of Funtom and heir to the Phantomhive nobility. I demand to see the Captain of this squadron at once."

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Then they started to laugh at him. Presumably, Ciel thought, because of the comically serious look he wore on his childish face, complete with eyepatch and all. When

"Oh, I remember you," One said when his laughter had died. "You're that damn brat who can't stop making toys and candy for one second to actually help humankind survive. And the same one that somehow got his estate destroyed by Titans _without_ any Wall breaches? I'll let you steam with the commoners, thanks."

Reeling thoughts threatened to force Ciel to the ground after he heard the soldier's words.

_Estate. Destroyed. Titans. No breach._

The civic center disappeared, melting from the Phantomhive Earl's vision as it was replaced by a dining hall, one he knew all too well.

Fire coated the great room, wreathing it in a kind of sick, all consuming glory. The chairs, the tables, everything within these four cursed walls was devoured by the hungry horde of beasts that made their home within these flames. They charred everything, the furniture, the walls, even the people around them to a dark, smeary black. And in the middle of it all...there he was. Ciel Phantomhive Sr. Ciel couldn't see his face, but he knew it was him.

But wait...his mother had died as well in the fire. Where was she? Hadn't he found her in this room? Or...somewhere else?

Then someone else was there, standing by the decomposing, burning body of his father.

A woman in a long, white dress that Ciel could clearly see the color of, despite the smoke and lack of light. She had hair that imitated her dress, and purple, glowing eyes that were the only facial feature of hers that the young Earl could discern.

Large, white feathered wings sprouted from her back. They seemed to reach for him with invisible fingers. They began to envelope him as the woman neared close to him. Her face was less than an inch from his as the hall melted away to nothing but an endless, black void.

She raised a finger to her lips and said...

"_Erase the barren. Erase the useless. Erase the unclean."_

And then he was back at the civic center, tossing aside the vision he'd just had.

"Well kid?" The soldier said. 'You gonna get the hell outta here?"

"Yes," he replied.

Ciel walked back over to Meyrin, Finny, and Bardruoy, who were tearing open their pieces of bread before the maid handed him his.

"I'm sorry, Young Master," Meyrin said, patting the blue-eyed boy on the back. "We tried our best."

_' No, we didn't,'_ he thought._ 'They destroyed it. The whole thing. My home. Gone. All of it... splinters, rubble, glass..._

_Death...Fire...Feathers...Purple...Useless...barren...unclean..._

"YOUNG MASTER!"

Ciel immediately got on his tip toes to look over the sea of refugees that crowded around him. The voice had come from the left...hadn't it?

"But I'm not a parasite!"

Yes, it had! Then there was the sound of flesh smacking flesh.

"YOUNG MASTER!"

Over the oceans of people surrounding him in their urge to recieve rations, Ciel could see his very own butler, his towering visage exactly what Ciel needed at a time like this.

"SEBASTIAN! WAIT THERE! I HAVE THE SERVANTS WITH ME AND WILL BE WITH YOU MOMENTARILY!"

The Earl motioned to his cook, maid, and gardener to follow him.

The way to the other side of the civic center's courtyard had been hell. Ciel could almost feel the masses of flesh, bone, and blood this world labeled people crushing him as they walked ever so slowly towards the butler. Once, twice, three times his foot was stepped on. Another person almost knocked him over into Finny, which would have cause a domino effect on the whole group. Thanks to all the gods or mercy in the world, that did not occur, and after what seemed like forever, the Atlantic had been crossed, and Ciel had landed in the New World.

"SEBASTIAN!" Ciel yelled. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? THE TITANS DESTROYED THE DAMN MANSION AGAIN, AND WE ONLY BARELY MADE IT OUT ALIVE! ARE YOU NOT SUPPOSED TO KEEP ME ALIVE AT ALL COSTS?"

The butler didn't even flinch. He never did, no matter how loudly or how furiously he screamed at the demon, Sebastian only continued to show off that lighthearted smirk.

"I assure you, Young Master," the butler continued, ignoring the fury written all over Ciel's face. "You were quite safe." Then, leaning closer, he whispered,  
"_Need I remind you of the quite colorful pasts of our staff?"_

"Grumble, grumble," was all that passed from Ciel's lips after that.

"Woah! Armin! Ashley! Mikasa! Mom! Come see who it is!"

Ciel Phantomhive turned to the sound of the voice and found himself face to face with Eren Yaeger.

***ENTER WIERD ANIME PAINT SCENE CAUSE THOSE FUCKING ROCK***

_And in that one moment, no two souls were ever more at odds and one with one another._

_There is Eren Yaeger, his courage, rage, and curiosity boiling to a cocktail of emotions within him, until it explodes from him and will plaster the whole world with its red, raw, indifferent glow. This is the true embodiment of fire, of heat, and of emotion._

_And there is Ciel Phantomhive, his resolve, cruelty, and intelligence hardening into a great spike within him, until his life is on a single, thin piece of hope's thread. This is when he will pull this spike from within him, and weaponize it to protect himself and any he chooses. This is the true embodiment of ice, of cold, and of steel._

_The charge that filled the air as these two, headed for such greatness that they cannot possibly imagine, used their fire, their ice, their courage, their resolve, to wage a war of monumental proportions between them in that one, fateful moment._

_Their destinies will not stray far apart._

***EXIT WIERD ANIME PAINT SCENE***

Ciel's eyes scanned over the other boy intently. He had brunette hair that fell to his eyes, which were large and full of wondering thoughts about the world beyond these Walls. Funny, his own had had that glow, long ago. He was shorter than Ciel, but more muscular, however little that was. The boy next to him, was shorter than the both of them, with yellow hair that reached down to encircle his neck. His eyes were a bright, baby blue. The two girls behind Sebastian were of black and blonde hair color, the first had hair that reached down to her chest, and the other had hers brushed back to cover her back down to her ankles.

"Hey!" the brunette haired boy said as he outstretched his hand. "Eren Yaeger." He pointed to each of the other children with him, saying their names as he passed them. "That's Armin, my sister Mikasa, and Armin's sister Ashley. My mom and Armin's grandpa should be somewhere around here..."

Ciel looked at the hand in front of him. And took it.

"Ciel Phantomhive. But I'm sure you already knew that."

Well yeah," Eren started, but Ciel ignored him and turned to Sebastian. "What is the condition of the factory in Stohess?" He said.

"I had recieved word from Tenaka, when we last saw him, that there were riots going on within the district over our factories," Sebastian replied. "From what he told me, the Military Police shared the rioters' opinions about the place and allowed them to tear it down. No word was relayed to His Majesty by Commander Dok, so the place burnt to the ground."

No. Not again. It can't be! He was...was Ciel Phantomhive! He couldn't be a homeless ruffian!

He steeled himself again, hiding his pain at losing his home to ths cruel, beautiful world for the second time again.

"Mr. Yaeger," He said in an uncaring tone which didn't surprise Sebastian in the least. What surprise the young Earl was how casual Eren and his friends were around him. They should be flocking about in excitment! But he supposed that enough strange things had happened in the last 48 hours, so it hadn't shocked them to see a famous Noble mixed in with the common rabble. "What are you and your friends going to do? I imagine your home was destroyed when the Titans attacked. Do you have a plan?"

Some quick whispering among the four of them yielded an answer to that question quickly. Eren walked up close to Ciel and invited him into the circle.

"Now," Eren said. "You absolutely cannot let anybody know."

"Agreed," they all said.

"Ciel," Eren asked, looking at the Young Earl with serious eyes. "We're joining the Cadet Corps. You in?"

Ciel's first thought was NO. Absolutely not! He was Ciel Phantomhive, Owner of Funtom and heir to the Phantomhive nobility! He would not answer to some loudmouthed drill instructor and be forced to eat pus off of some rusted cracked tray to go and throw away his life for some cause that millions of other had died for with the tide never turning in their favor! But then...Funtom didn't exist anymore. The Phantomhive nobility didn't exist anymore.

Ciel Phantomhive did't exist anymore.

"I...I...," he stuttered, unable to think correctly.

But then again, Ciel Phantomhive not existing didn't harm the grand order of things, did it?

"I'm going with you," Ciel said, deciding upon the name 'Kurt Lange(**LAN-GEE)'** to replace the castaway persona of Ciel. "But one thing. I am not your friend. I am not your partner. I am in this solely for my own gain. To slaughter those who took my home from me. And know me not as Ciel Phantomhive. Know me as Kurt Lange. I imagine that enlisting in the military would be more than a mite harder when you're someone that they don't like all that much. Also, I imagine my servants will want to come along with me. They must be let in on it."

That last part was the most begrudging term of the whole ordeal for Eren, but he still accepted the younger boy's terms, however reluctantly.

_Their destinies will not stray far apart._

**2 YEARS LATER**

"...AND YOU WILL GROW TO HATE ME!" Commandant Keith Shadis yelled at the fifty or so recruits gathered in the courtyard. "TRAINING IS GONNA BE A WHITE KNUCKLE RIGHT THROUGH HELL! IF I'VE DONE MY JOB RIGHT, YOU'LL BE WAKING UP IN A COLD SWEAT FROM MEMORIES OF THIS PLACE EVERY NIGHT FOR THE REST OF YOUR MISERABLE LIVES! RIGHT NOW YOU'RE NOTHING! NOVICES! BUT OVER THE NEXT THREE SOUL CRUSHING YEARS, YOU'LL LEARN TO TAKE DOWN YOUR OWN GOLIATH! REMEMBER THIS MOMENT WHEN YOU COME FACE TO FACE WITH HIM! CAUSE HERE'S WHERE YOU ASK YOURSELF...AM I A FIGHTER?! OR AM I FEED?! AM I GONNA BE GROUND UP TO PULP IN BOULDER SIZED INCISORS?! OR AM _I_ GONNA BE THE ONE TO BITE?!"

Little did the Titans know, there were eight souls that would bite back with their own boulder sized incisors.

_And hard._

**SPOILER: Regrettably, Ashley had to go with Martin on the "campaign" to reclaim Wall Maria because Armin's not a suitable caretaker(niether is Carla apparently) and she probably died with Martin. **

***tears***

**She will, however, have significance in this series WAYYYYYYY LATTERRRRR. Remember her.**


	4. A Dim Light Amidst Despair

Two golden, hardened eyes scanned over the massed recruits in the dirt courtyard, looking for those who would next feel the wrath of the hammer that was Keith Shadis. He liked to pick out those who were snotty, smarty-pants know it alls who needed to be brought down a few pegs. Upon scathing the crowd with his beady eyes, he saw a small, blue eyed boy, his hair almost turning his head into some sort of demented Aryan Coconut(**SEE WHAT I DID THERE)**. Deciding that he was a prime candidate with which to educate the other recruits, he strode over, quietly and serenely.

Time to find out.

"Hey!" he yelled at the boy. "Mop top!"

He swore he could see the tiniest little bead of sweat run down the boy's temple as he shakily gave the military salute.

"Sir!" He yelled back, the sweating more profuse.

"What do they call you, maggot?"

"Armin Arlert, from Shiganshina, sir!"

Oh dear lord. Not another Arlert. The previous drill instructor of the Cadet Corps, Ghislain Aksel, had told him about them. Apparently Aksel had been there for over forty years, and had had several Arlerts under his "tutelage" (If one could consider yelling an art) including a Martin, a Frieda, a Claudia, and an Albrecht. All of which, the thick bearded man had told him, were laughable soldiers. However, they had somehow not died under the stress of carrying bags on a "hump" through the forests which the Scout Regiment frequently used for all nighters, and so were not completely useless. But with blades...the stories Aksel had told Shadis on the night of his resigning had almost killed him with laughter.

"Wow, seriously?" he said as he walked up to Armin, barely keeping a straight face. "Why would your parents curse you with such a dumb name?"

"It was my grandfather, sir!" Armin said, still almost yelling despite the small distance between them. "For some reason, he was intent on naming me Armin instead of Ned as my parents intended, sir!"

"That is delightful to hear! I could give two shits about what name you were given at birth! They both stink and yet both fit you perfectly! Now, Cadet Arlert, why's a runt like you here?"

The short blonde closed his eyes as he shouted out as loud as he could, spitting in Shadis's face by accident, "To help humanity overcome the Titans!"

Keith wiped Armin's spittle on his Cadet jacket, his face scrunched up with rage.

"That is ALSO delightful to hear! You'll make a great light snack for 'em!" Then, turning to face the rest of the row Armin was in, "ROW THREE, ABOUT FACE!"

As the drill instructor walked past the blonde boy he spit on his hand and serenely, without halting his pace at all, wiped his hand on the back of Armin's neck. The Cadet shivered as the spittle touched his nape, and pulled up the collar of his jacket to wipe it off.

"Runt," Shadis whispered.

The next row held little difference. He stopped at another Cadet, taller and stockier than Armin, with a less golden shade of blonde hair than the last recruit, and a deeper voice. This one was also sweating, drops running down his face faster and faster as he looked his drill instructor up and down.

"Whaddaya call yourself?" Shadis asked the boy.

Saluting him, the recruit shouted, "Sir! My name is Thomas Wagner and I'm from Trost Distric-"

"I don't recall asking you to state your hometown, Wagner! You think minor details like that are gonna matter when you're out in the field?"

"But sir, I-"

"Nobody here gives a damn!"

Resisting the urge to slap the young man, Shadis moved on after ordering the fourth row to about face with a gravelly shout. The girl he stopped in front of to verbally assault next was about a head shorter than Thomas, with long, black pigtails and a very pink complexion. Before he even got anything out of his mouth, the girl exclaimed, "Sir! Mina Carolina from Karanese, sir!"

"DON'T INTERRUPT ME!

"Sir!"

"Is a pathetic worm like you the best Karanese has to offer?"

"Sir! I'm afraid that's the case, sir!"

"Well, then we'll need more of you! The Titans are gonna be lining up outside the gate looking for some Burgers made of you and your entire hometown's worthless hides! ROW FIVE, ABOUT FACE!"

The row turned and face the backs of Row Four as Shadis moved on.

The sixth, seventh, and eighth rows yielded no one who he thought would buckle. But he did pick out a few that he passed by just because...well, they scared him a little.

The first was a boy of about the same height as Thomas Wagner, but with a caramel complexion and brunette hair that fell farther down his face that Thomas's did. His eyebrows were harsh and thick, overshadowing turquoise eyes filled with a fire and a need for revenge that truly intimidated Shadis. It was Grisha's son. He knew that. That same fire used to be in Grisha's eyes when they were in class together.

The second was an Oriental girl, taller than all three of the new recruits who's names he had bothered to learn, with black hair that flowed past her neck. Her eyes were dead at first glance, but if he were to look closer, he would see a burning desire, so great and hot that it had consumed her for most of her life.

The next two were as opposite as two people could be, the first a muscular, short blonde boy with hard features and golden eyes akin to Shadis's, and the other the tallest Cadet in the whole 104th, a skinny boy with black hair and grey eyes that belied a sort of guilt within them.

The next one was all by himself, a moderately tall boy with blue hair and eyes to match. Or eye, Shadis corrected himself. One of the electric blue orbs was covered by an eyepatch that the men at the military checkpoint had either missed or not cared about. It wasn't a top priority of his.

The last were two girls, also almost complete opposites. The first, a short girl with blonde hair that was half tied back in a ponytail, had ice colored eyes that clearly showed a hatred for the whole world. The other, almost as tall as the black haired boy he'd seen before, shared both hair and dead eyes with the first girl, her freckled face and plump lips not hiding a sort of aura of weariness that flowed from her.

Resuming his raging persona that he showed to all recruits that saw him, he walked over to a tall boy, his brown hair in an undercut atop his head. His eyes were a gray hued amber color, and they shone with uneasiness as Shadis approached him.

"What do we have over here?" He said in that gravelly voice that got on everyone's nerves.

"Jean Kirschtein, sir!" he yelled. "From Trost district!"

"And why are you here?" Shadis shot back.

The recruit's face softened into a less tense and frightened mask as he said, "To join the Military Police, sir. The best of the best!"

"That's nice," the drill instructor said, his tone softening akin to Jean's face. "You wanna live in the Interior, do ya?"

Jean almost smiled as he said, "yes-" but was cut off as Shadis gave him a smack with his own bald, hard forehead. The brunette fell to the ground, wincing.

"No one told you to sit, recruit!" he shouted. "If you can't handle this, Kirschtein, then forget about joining the Military Police!"

Turning to another boy, about as tall as Jean with black hair and a freckled face, he screamed "What the hell is wrong with your face, you smiling idiot?"

"Marco Bott, from Ziney, south side of Wall Rose!" he said. " IplantojointheMilitaryPoliceandgivelifeandlimbinservicetotheKingsir!"

"Well then," Shadis replied. "That makes you an idealistic fool. And a reub. You want the truth?" He leaned in closer and then whispered, " The only use the King has for your life and limbs are as Titan fodder."

Then he moved on, to a short recruit with a buzzcut. "Hey, Q-ball," he said. "You're up next."

"Oh...uhhh...me?" he whispered to the person next to him. Then, doing the salute _backwards, _he replied to the drill instructor, "Sir, Connie Springer, from Ragako Village, sir!"

Shadis was furious. He picked up the young man by his nigh hairless head, stretching his eyelids with his fingers.

"You have it backwards, _Connie Springer," _he growled, venom practically dripping from his scarred lips. "That was the first thing you were taught. This salute represents your resolve to fight the systematic destruction of our people. IS YOUR HEART ON YOUR RIGHT SIDE?"

Then, the loudest sound he had ever heard brought Shadis to a halt. It had been a munching sound, coming from a girl to the right of Connie. She had solid brown hair in the same style the blonde he had passed earlier did, and had crumbs of a steam potato all over her chin. A potato was clutched in her hand, bite marks covering it.

Dropping Connie onto the dirty ground, he said, " Hey, you there. Whaddaya think you're doing?"

She ignored him as he stepped closer, her gaze flying about around her like a cornered animal. And then, when he was less than an inch from her face...

" YOU ARE OFFICIALLY ON MY SHIT LIST! JUST WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

With complete calm, she swallowed a bite of potato and saluted him, the correct way, unlike the groaning boy on the ground next to her.

"Sasha Braus from Dopper Village, at your service! Reporting for duty, sir!"

"Sasha Braus, huh?" Shadis whispered. "And what is that you're clutching in your right hand?"

"A steam potato!" she responded. "It sat there in the mess hall begging to be eaten, sir."

Hungry enough to steal from a military cafeteria? Shadis was impressed.

"A theft. I understand. But here? Why eat it here, of all places?"

"It looked quite delicious," Sasha continued. "And it was getting cold. So I gave it warm shelter in my stomach, sir."

Quite comically, Shadis whispered, "Why? I can't comprehend..."

_"Why would you eat that potato?"_

Sasha began to look a little confused by his questions.

"Uh..." she stuttered. "Are you asking me why people eat potatoes? I-I'm surprised you don't know, sir."

Almost every recruit was looking at her, incredulous at what she had just said to the drill instructor. Did she know what he would do to her? Evidently, Sasha had not been watching Shadis destroy the other recruits for the past five minutes, and so did not look even a mite afraid. Or, didn't for long.

"Hehe..."she said. Then she broke the steam potato in half, offering one half of the golden hued vegetable to Shadis.

"Here, sir. Have half."

"Have half?" he asked. "Really?"

She only smirked.

**LATER THAT DAY...**

Eren sat on the front deck of the barracks alongside Connie, Jean, Mina, Marco, and Armin. All of them had their eyes trained on Sasha, whom, after Shadis had had part of her steam potato, had been ordered to run " UNTIL THE SUNSET COMES!" or she would lose her meal privileges for the next five days. Snickers had been abound throughout the crowd when she had chosen the latter, until the drill instructor had glared at them with a beady stare that could turn a Titan to stone. The sunlight was beginning to turn golden with evening, and Sasha was still running.

"Man," Connie said. "I thought Shadis was gonna kill 'Potato Girl'."

"Is that her new name now?" Jean replied.

"I think based on what we saw, it's quite apt," Connie shot back with a wickedly smug look on his face.

"Hey guys," Eren said. "One hell of a first day, Am I right?"

"Suppose so," Connie responded. "Hey, didn't she say she was from Dopper Village? That hunting settlement up in the mountains?"

"Yeah she did. What of it?"

"Oh, nothing-"

"Hey, Armin," Eren said, pointing to a horse pulled cart full of recruits they'd seen in the courtyard that day. "What's that?"

"That's a cart, Eren," Jean interjected.

"Do I look like I'm four?!"

"Boys, boys, you're both handsome. Now Armin was trying to say something-"

"It's for those who Shadis broke," Armin said, breaking through the voices of all four of the others. "The ones who're too squeamish to have to face him again. They're all going to go plow the population's food from now on."

"But,' Marco exclaimed. "It's only the first day!"

"I suppose that's how it is," Eren answered. "If you can't handle the pressure, you gotta go. There's not really another option, other than hunkering down and taking it...I can't believe they'd rather pull plants than fight."

"I might not have heard," Marco said. "But I don't think you ever said where you were from...Eren, was it?"

"Yeah, it's Eren," the Germanic boy replied, shaking Marco's hand. "I'm from Shiganshina, same as Armin and Mikasa."

Jean, Mina, Marco, and Connie's eyes all widened in astonishment to hear that there were not one, but three recruits among them that had been there that fateful day when mankind was ruthlessly forced to wake up.

"The colossal one," Connie said, his eyes filled with excitement. "Did you see it?"

"Yeah," Eren responded. "Yeah I did."

"DUDE! YOU'VE GOTTA TELL EVERYONE!"

It was dark before Connie had gotten everyone who wasn't sick at the very thought of a Titan to surround one of the tables in the barracks and listen to Eren.

"Alright," the Germanic boy started. "I saw the big guy!"

"What'd he look like?"

"Like a corpse. No skin, and lips in a scowl. But mostly big. Real big. He stuck his head over the outer wall."

"Woah! I heard he stepped over the wall entirely!"

"Nah. He was big...but not that big. He'd have to have been at least twice as tall to do that. But he kicked the gate in...I'd never seen anything like it. There were boulders falling out of the sky."

"And the Armored Titan?"

"The one that broke the inner gate? Oh, yeah. I just thought it was another Titan at the time. Guess it did look a little different..."

"Blah, blah blah," Ciel said, sitting in a dark corner opposite the crowd. "I'm sure the reports taken from the field by anyone that actually survived the thing will suffice. If, of course, you had access to them..." He added, "Like a certain someone. And that the government was housing a few people who's blood proved them suitable candidates for an experiment to...Well, that would spoil the story..."

"Hey," Thomas asked. "Who are you again? Can't say I saw you get hammered by Shadis earlier."

Ciel stared straight at Eren, his eye saying _Don't blow this, Yaeger. I'm counting on you and that addled brain of yours to make the right choice._

_Fine, fine...Kurt, _Eren's eyes shot back. "He's...uh...," he stuttered. "He's Kurt. Lange. He was in Shiganshina when the Colossal Titan attacked."

"So you-," about five people started at the same time, but the blue-eyed boy got up and walked out before he could be berated for information that they'd already heard.

The air was brisk when Ciel stepped outside, a light, refreshing breeze hitting his side. It was nice, of course, for that barracks had been stuffed to burst with people, heat, pointless questions, and more heat. But then the breeze went through his clothes and touched that brand. The evil, crisp, engulfing disgust he felt for it was boundless. To have such a symbol carved into his very flesh greatly displeased him. Damn Wall Cultists. Nobody knew how much he'd love to erase their pitiful existence from the self writing slate that was history.

Were those...eyes out in the dark, at the very edge of his world? Where his own eye could not quite see, two red, fiery orbs that glowed with a hellish light were flying about in the black void that was night.

"Hello?" Ciel called out, lacking any sort of weapon and resorting to a piece of bread for defense, if needed. "Is anyone there?"

"Get off of me! I don't have anything else!" He heard someone yelling, definitely a girl. And scuffling, as if whoever was yelling was also putting up a violent but rapidly waning struggle.

"GIVE ME MORE!"

Alright. Never the hero, but time to act. Ciel rushed towards the eyes in the darkness, waving the piece of bread around and yelling at the top of his lungs. Whatever was out there lunged at him, teeth locking around the bread in his hand but not harming a hair on his head. Pulled along in the wake of the thing, was a girl.

Ciel had never seen anyone like her.

Her hair was blonde, not a split end or even loose hair in sight. It reached down her shoulders in long, yellow rivers. She had large blue eyes, albeit red and a little puffy from the fight she'd put up against the thing that was after her. A little more than two heads shorter than him, the girl's hands instantly latched onto his Cadet shirt as he fell to the ground. For, while drooling over the goddess in front of him, he hadn't noticed her sailing a few feet off the ground towards him.

Girl.

Ciel.

Ground.

On.

Top.

Him.

He froze, not sure what to do.

"Uhmmmmm...h-hello...," he whispered, staring up into her face while not hearing a sound in the world except the wind.

"Oh, hi," the girl responded, apparently unfazed by the current position the were both in, a smile coming over her face.

"What was that thing?" he asked, looking in the direction that the thing had gone.

"Oh, just Sasha," she replied. "I brought her some food and water and she went a little over the top, but I'm fine so... no worries?"

"I-I suppose, yes," Ciel said, lifting the blonde female off of him and dusting himself off. "I'm Kurt. Kurt Lange," he told her as he stuck out his hand for a shake.

"Christa Lenz," the girl responded.

**6 YEARS EARLIER**

Lod Reiss sat at his magnificent, oak paneled desk within Wall Sina, opening a paper envelope addressed to, 'The Majesty Throneholder of The Germanic Steadstates.' Of course it was for him, he decided. No man other than himself and whatever dark co conspirator sent the paper scrawled sellout of his people to him. Ripping the letter open, Lod's eyes scanned the Old English- style text:

_To one Lod Helmuth Reiss, Majesty Throneholder of The Germanic Headstates:_

_Your offer has been considered. If the Coordinate will be turned over to:_

_Angela Blanc_

_Claude Faustus_

_William Spears_

_Then Eren Yaeger will, in fact, be disposed of. Our top agents will be sent when the Coordinate reaches the location that you and our Fuhrer have agreed upon. Your pleas to attempt to avert the death of one Historia Reiss will be heeded if possible. And, with the Coordinate, Titans located on the continent playing host to the Germanic Headstates will be removed. To give the Headstates time to prepare so as to minimize damage caused while the Coordinate is being retrieved, our top agents are as follows:_

_Bertolt Hoover; 60 Meter Titan_

_Reiner Braun; Armor Plated Titan_

_Annie Leonhardt; Female Titan; Hardened Skin similar to Armor Plated Titan_

_But, it would do our Fuhrer great good if you would send out military capability to dispatch a particular Titan that takes up refuge in the Forest Of Giant Trees. _

_Attributes pertaining to this Titan are as follows:_

_Red Irises _

_White Skin Pigment_

_Feathers Growing Along Spine_

_Sabre Teeth_

_Claws Ranging From 10-15 Feet In Length On Both Hands And Feet_

_13 Meters In Height(Only Estimation; Capture Would Comirm)_

_We trust that you will honor your half of the bargain as our great Fuhrer has done himself._

_Best Regards,_

_Roy Mustang_

**OKKKKKK...So, Fullmetal Alchemist will have a small part in the story after all. But almost all of the main characters from FMA will not be included. However, Humonculi will be. How, I haven't decided yet...:P**

**R&R!**


	5. Author's Note NO 1(May be more)

**I cannot say how sorry I am for the late due date for the next chapter of OAFSFHASOTF(Lots of O's, A's, and F's. About 2 weeks have past since the last chapter, and this one is only about a third done. This is due only to me finding the disk to Age Of Mythology in my mother's disk case. I kinda can't hold back on RTS games like that, and so the last two weeks have been terribly unproductive.**

**Again, I apologize for the delay; rest assured, however, IT IS being worked on.**

**(Insert cutesy little anime character giving you guys cookies or some shit like that XD; don't have any tied up in my basement right now...Just Grell, Envy, Mikasa, and Sugu...)**

**R&R!**


	6. Night Of New Beginnings(andANGRYSHADIS)

"PICK UP THE PACE, YOU LEAD HEELED LAGGERS!"

Once again, the batch of yellow bellied, unskilled little worms that had been put under Shadis's command had failed him. The pathetic excuses he had been tossed were falling to the ground with their legs imitating jelly after no more than 10 miles of backpacking. Although, a few of them seemed to be able to handle the great weight on their shoulders. One in particular, a boy no more than 16 with orange blonde hair and a straw hat, actually impressed him. The recruit that looked more accustomed to farming than killing Titans was actually sprinting, the pounds upon pounds of who knew what contained within** (*****cough* Levi'sTideandfeatherdusters *cough*)** the backpack he carried not bothering him in the least. As Shadis continued to watch the boy, who's name he recalled as Finny, laugh as he took the packs of an older, dark pink haired woman, the damned Arlert boy, and almost got Bardruoy's. But damn the man, he was too stubborn to admit how much the thing was slowing him down. And so Finny sped onwards, soon leaving most of the other recruits behind.

Somehow, Arlert had ended up with another bag, probably Connie Springer's, whom Shadis could see pulling a stunt like that. Soon, the Aryan Coconut(**SEE WHAT I DID THERE HUH HUH**) was slowing down to be the very last of the recruits in line, except for the heavyset, blonde titan of a boy that was Reiner Braun. The boy was an idiot, or so it seemed until he stepped out into his element. The field. By conserving his energy and remembering, unlike most of the morons in front of him, that it wasn't a race they were running but an endurance test, Reiner could easily, well, Shadis wouldn't say _win,_ but be the best at the task in front of him. If it wasn't for Mikasa Ackerman, he'd be the top of the class hands down.

Armin was falling further and further behind. Shadis then decided to give the boy a little encouragement.

"Your boots waterlogged, Arlert?" He yelled through the rain "Let's see some hustle!" He slapped the boy on the back, sending him flopping down into the mud.

If you can't take the pressure, you have to go and pull plants.

Great. Now his hair, his face, and the entire front of his shirt were all caked in brown, permeating mud. Armin didn't want to get up. His legs were burning. His chest felt like there was an icy spear through it, piercing his lungs and making even breathing a Herculean effort for the young man. Armin really hoped that Eren and Mikasa were far enough ahead of him that they wouldn't find him dead and collapsed in the mud, eventually realizing that he had been killed by some silly military hike.

"Really, Arlert?" A cold, concise voice said above him. With what little remaining strength he could muster, Armin looked up to see the familiar face of Ciel. Of course, the navy haired boy was scowling, his eyes hardened, but all the same he held out a hand to the blonde.

"We're supposed to be a team once we're out of here and in the field against Titans, so as much as it pains me, I supposed we should start here," Ciel said acidly. "Don't bother trying to reciprocate a favor. This alone is proof you won't be capable of such a feat."

"You know," Armin replied. " If your going to bother to assist someone there's no need to act despicable towards them afterwards. It sort of renders the favor in and of itself null and void."

Armin could of sworn that his companion smirked.

"Not in the slightest,"Ciel shot back. "It keeps the person at a distance so they won't expect the same kindness again, and will fix the problem themselves like mature human beings the next time it occurs."

"Is that why the only person anyone sees you smile at is Christa?"

"You shut the hell up about that or I will put you back in the mud _after_ I give you my pack."

"Yeah yeah, whatever."

With both packs slung over Ciel's left arm and Armin's right, the problem of weight plus Armin's lacking athleticism was solved.

"I think we've got it!"

"Not yet we don't. We've still got the run. That's what this was about."

Gradually, the two boys continued to pick up speed, leaving Reiner in last place of the multitude of recruits.

"We're going to make it! I'm not going to die in a mud puddle!" Armin's face glowed with happiness at having accomplished something that not too long ago had been unattainable in his world. Unfortunately for Ciel, Armin also seemed keen to whoop with his _arms_ rather than his _mouth_, which caused the precarious yet successful formation to topple to the ground, staining Ciel's almost perfect and recently painted blue Cadet jacket with mud. Armin noticed no difference in his, already dried mud now buried under a layer that was quite wet.

Shadis still slapped them both senseless when he saw and they explained it to him.

Shadis looked back and saw Reiner Braun, slowly jogging behind almost every other recruits that had been called on this hike, whistling some tune with a small grin on his face. He looked jovial, despite the grueling trip he'd endured. Shadis was almost jealous.

'_Mind and constitution of a grass fed ox, that one,' _he though as he looked the muscled young man over. _'But respected by his comrades like a General.'_

What were the other recruits' names? Oh, yes. There were...

'_Eren Yaeger. Lackluster. Couldn't exactly use the damn equipment right, but you can't blame technical errors on the guy that's wearing the tech, can you? Who knows, kid might not even need equipment. With the mindset he's got, one might think he'd be content with a butterknife to stab Titans in the ankles with._

_Armin Arlert. Built like a daffodil, and has about as high a voice as a daffodil, too. Academically though, one of the best we have._

_Mikasa Ackerman. Nothing short of a perfect performance on her part, in almost all areas. Its not a stretch to says she excels at everything. Nor to say the girl's a bona-fied genius._

_Annie Leonhardt. An animal with the sword, but does not use the same pen as the other horses. However, she delivers some of the cleanest cuts I've seen thus far._

_Bertolt Hoover. Loads of native talent, but too much of a wimp to not wet himself when a comrade dies. Can't exactly blame him, but being able to piss your pants isn't a skill we need._

_Jean Kirschtein. A more insufferable, tempered little smartass of a soldier I've never seen, but uses the ODM Gear like he's riding a bike._

_Sasha Braus. Unusually fine instincts, particularly for my imported steak. Doesn't want to share with others for obvious reasons. Who'd want to?_

_Connie Springer. Almost as much of a smartass as Kirschtein, but thank the Lord he's nowhere near as cunning. Pretty agile on the switchbacks._

_Kurt Lange. Still as short as he probably was two years ago, but by far the most fast I've seen, easily surpassing even Mikasa in terms of speed. If it weren't for Ms. Ackerman's exceeding him in most everything else, the kid would be top of the class. _

_Meyrin Oshrio. Clumsy as hell and in need of glasses repair, however does demonstrate great ability for simultaneous attack and evasion._

_Finny Taylor. Requires someone to tell him when he's using complete overkill, otherwise a fine soldier with, it seems, no physical limits.'_

Each Cadet delivered just as they had been expected to. The cuts of Annie, Mikasa, Kurt, Reiner, Ymir Engstrom, and Jean were all deep enough that, had the slices of cheap bread attached to wooden cutouts been the napes of real Titans, the giants would have gone down and not gotten back up. However, Armin, Eren, Meyrin, Christa Lenz and Bertolt all cut the bread too shallow. Finny had hit the bread with his blades so hard it went careening into another cutout and bounced off to the ground. Connie missed it altogether, instead carving a gash into the "spinal cord" of the cutout. Sasha had flipped an instant before she would have cut it and ripped it from the cutout with her teeth.

"You gonna chew the Titans to death, Braus?! Step it up!" he yelled to the auburn haired girl.

Christa silently cursed herself for her blunder. If she hadn't been SOOOOO busy ogling at Kurt, his blade passing through the bread like it wasn't in their physical plane, she might have actually hit the food article the exercise demanded she did as deep as was needed. What a way to go, she decided, if one day, she was checking him out for the millionth time or some such nonsense she was bound to do, she swung on her cables right into a Titan's mouth.

'_At least my last memory would be my best...Wait, what the hell am I talking about?' _ Christa bonked herself on the head with the hilt of her blades.

"Ms. Lenz!" the sound of Kurt's voice instantly caught her attention. "Over here!" he called again. Christa turned and saw him coming up on her right, stopping next to her. "How are you?" the navy haired male even smiled, a small, thunderclap of a smile that was there one moment and gone the next. Christa swore she could feel the lightest tinge of pink come over her face. Not that him asking how she was was anything new, but it still gave her some sort of rush, considering(**THIS CHANNEL HAS BEEN HACKED BY ENVY. **Envy: Now, now, can't let you find out those details that we save for later!*Lifts up skort* Bet you forgot all about what the little brat just said. TATA!)

"O-oh, I'm ok. How about you, Kurt?" she asked him.

"Quite alright," Kurt answered."However, smalltalk isn't the reason I came over here. It's not you that's the cause of the shallow cuts. It's the angle of the blade. And the wind. To start off, show me how you natural hold the thing. Stick out your left arm."

Christa obeyed, and Kurt studied her hand and fingers tediously before saying, "You see the angle? It's slanted enough that the wind, coupled with the force of hitting the bread, make the blade start to turn sideways. At the angle of your ODM Gear's trajectory, the blade begins to lift up and out of the bread because of that. Try it like this."

He shifted her finger to hold the blade a few degrees to the left, perfecting the straight line of the edge that Christa herself had tried to do so many times.

"Now, shall we make some sandwiches?"

He'd definitely smirked that time.

Kurt zoomed off towards the last standing cutout, Christa not far behind him. He shifted his blades to face in opposite directions from his hands and spun, neatly cutting three identical marks into the bread. He turned around, watching her as he yelled, "Keep it as straight as you can! Do that and you've got this!"

'_Ok...he says I've got this...don't let him down, Christa!'_

Her entire body went completely rigid, and that shaking of the metal in her hands that she felt almost every time they did this bread exercise was gone. One clean stroke later, and she was on the other side of the cutout. Looking behind her, she saw...

A solid, concise cleft between two halves of bread, both nearly identical except for three cuts in the left half.

"I...KURT! I DID IT! I REALLY DID IT!"

"Christa! Move!"

Only then did Christa recover enough from her afterglow to realize that the rigidness of her body had not yet subsided, her arm still held out right in front of her with her blade on a direct course with Kurt. And she was less that a few meters from him. Desperately trying to move her arm in time, she bended it up into what would have been a ninety degree angle. Instead, the lower edge of the blade sliced through Kurt's upper arm. Christa, in a daze at having injured her friend, blindly tried moving it down to get it out. That was when a dark green blur shot between Kurt and Christa, somehow removing the blade from Kurt's arm, normalizing Christa's arm, and grabbing Kurt by the shoulders before carrying him back down. Down to, Christa hadn't noticed, the rest of the recruits, who had apparently been there for quite some time, watching them.

"BRAUN! KIRSCHTEIN! GET ME SOME DAMN TOURNIQUETS!"

Christa sped down to the rest of them, Kurt lying in Shadis's arms, the older man's hands pressed very tightly to Kurt's arm. Reiner and Jean were searching through a large box the same color as the Commandant's jacket, obviously looking for some sort of remedy. She ran towards the navy haired boy, only to be stopped by Shadis's cold, swordpoint stare, a mixture of rage, indignation, shock, worry, and protectiveness.

He gestured to Reiner and Jean, who had applied tourniquets to Kurt's injury. "Take him for a minute, you two," he said, quietly and acidly.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT, LENZ?! YOU MISTAKE LANGE'S ARM FOR A PIECE OF DAMN BREAD?!" He all but spat at her.

"Sir I-," she tried to say.

"NO! YOU DON'T GET TO SPEAK! YOUR'E LUCKY I DON'T HAVE YOU COURTMARTIALED BEFORE YOU LEGALLY EVEN CAN BE! BECAUSE, LENZ, IT CAN DAMN WELL BE ARRANGED!"

"I was only-!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!"

"Everyone quiet!"

Both Shadis and Christa neglected to say a word as Kurt stood up.

"You," he said, pointing at Shadis."What was the point of this exercise? Getting a deep enough cut in the target, correct? Well if need be-" Kurt gestured to the halved piece of bread above them. "Then I'll damn well vouch for that as deep enough. The girl did what you asked. If what happened was anyone's fault, it's mine. I was the one who fixed her poise so as to improve her performance! And why do you care if any of us see a little blood? We all know where we go after this! If anything, this was helpful! It's going to prepare us for our daily lives when we don't need a drill instructor anymore! If you want to take out that frustration because you're a sixty something drill instructor who can't get enough dates, pick the one who is actually at fault, fool!"

Some people covered their mouths, some people almost whooped, other were deathly quiet, including Shadis himself. But only for a moment.

"You," he whispered, almost like a quiet knife plunging into someone's back. "Will run laps. Until I hear a sorry. And get a damn salute out of you. Is that clear, Cadet?"

"Crystal, sir," Kurt responded. "And my apologies for my behavior breaking protocol." The secret Earl gave a salute with his good arm, and then stumbled before _Christa_ caught his arm and helped him up. His face was very white, but he still gave her that secretive little smirk that he apparently saved just for her.

"That was foolish, you know," she whispered. "Do you know how many bruises he could've given you?"

"No," He replied. "But you can scold me later, 'Mother'."

**LATER THAT NIGHT**

"Alright, you guys," Eren said, stretching his arms and yawning as the fire crackled. "I'm gonna head inside. Even with this fire, its really chilly out. You gonna be ok?"

"We'll be fine, thanks," Christa replied.

Eren gave a sloppy wave goodbye, and ran to join Armin, Ymir, and Connie as they all trudged inside.

It was just Christa and Kurt now. What would they say? What could be talked about, around a warming fire and underneath a starlit sky, that wouldn't make either remember the events of the day? How Christa wanted to forget them. Every time she saw his blood coating her blade in her head, she wanted to throw up. Or cry. Or both. Either one sounded preferable to living that again.

"Well, your poise is definitely improved," he said. "The slice was too deep, though. We'll have to work on that. Don't want you blade getting stuck, no-"

"Can you just shut up?!" she growled.

Kurt's eye went wide. Apparently he'd not seen this coming. What an idiot. An adorable idiot, Christa decided, but still an idiot.

"Just be quiet!" she yelled at him. "Think of one reason, _one reason _ why I'd want to picture that again!"

"Look if you're talking about today, it's fi-"

"NO IT'S NOT!"

Christa couldn't stop herself. She buried her face in her hands and wept, tears rushing down her face and staining her boots to drip through and wet her socks. Why didn't Kurt understand? _Why didn't he get it?!_

_"I'm sorry," _ she half whispered, half sobbed. "I just...I could have killed you today! And you're too casual about it! Aren't you angry at me?!"

Kurt started laughing.

"Why on earth would I be angry at you for what happened?"

Christa full on punched Kurt, sending the navy haired boy sprawling to the ground save for his good arm breaking the fall just in time. Good. Then she wouldn't have almost killed him for the second time that day.

_"Why?! Why aren't you angry?! Am I that unintimidating!?"_

Kurt latched his hand onto her wrist, stopping her from hitting him again. He pulled her arm behind him, drawing their faces less than an inch from each other's. Christa's cheeks warmed up greatly.

"Look," he dangerously whispered. " It wasn't you that sent that blade into my arm. It wasn't you that injured me. It was me. I was the one that adjusted your arm. Without me, none of this would have happened! So quit whining about something you didn't-" he pinched his nose and sighed. "All I'm saying is, you don't need to get caught up in your thoughts about it and cause yourself pain. Had I just left you alone, we wouldn't be having this conversation-"

In the half instant that Kurt's eyes were closed when he blinked, something very warm crashed into his lips. When they were open again, he saw Christa, her nose next to his , eyes closed and lips...on his. Kurt was almost certain that his eyes increased in size tenfold. He almost tried to get her off of him, but he just...couldn't. It would crush her.

He couldn't act at all. He _couldn't_. It would debase him, turn back all the work he had done in the past two years. All the self improvement, everything he sacrificed to make himself able to survive, it would all disappear with one, innocent little movement in this instant.

So...warm...

And then Kurt let himself go.

His ivory skinned hand buried itself in her hair, drawing her closer to him as they kissed. Several, long, wondrous minutes passed by, and then they broke apart.

"Kurt, I...damn," Christa said. "I just messed up your whole plan, didn't I? Remember your plan for yourself, the one you told me when we first agreed to help each other out? This is gonna put some major kinks in it..." she giggled and then wiped her eyes.

"No...I just...I...I can...work around it...maybe?" Kurt was teetering on the edge of not having any idea what to say, however lacking in his life the concept had been. He was almost sure that some sort of disgusting, nervous _grin_ was splitting his face, accompanied by a scarlet face.

"If you have to," Christa replied, leaning over to kiss him again. Kurt caught her this time(**THIS CHANNEL HAS BEEN HACKED BY ENVY.** Envy: Geez, I can't stand this sappy shit! But at the same time it is pretty cute. Oh and look! He's gotta be taller than the FullMetal ANT! He's just gotta! *Grabs Kurt and a giant ruler with hentai décor* WHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTT? 4'10?! ONE FUCKING INCH SMALLER?!*Makes a million little Hughes and kills them in ferociously violent ways while the troll song plays*)

**2 YEARS LATER**

"See you guys at lunchtime," Mina Carolina said as she walked off to perform maintenance on cannon fixtures and railroads that hadn't yet received it. Eren watched her go for a moment. Then he looked about at the others. All working, in perfect sync with one another. One person would take out a cannon part, hand it to someone else, who would in turn, hand it to two other Cadets who would fix the part and then bring it back to the first person. Then he looked behind him, out at Trost. Such beauty, a testament to the progress humanity had made since that day. Towers jutted out of the seas of shorter houses, beacons of light for the whole world to see.

'_Has it really been five years? Look at us. Ready to stand tall again. We can do it! We can beat these things, and get our world back! Mankind didn't start this fight...but we're gonna finish it!'_

A sound, almost as loud as the tortured screams of the dead, cracked the sky and brought everything back into focus. A bright, golden thunderbolt lanced down from the heavens, scorching the blue of the sky a dark, puke green.

He'd seen this before.

Already knowing what it was, he turned around with heavy feet. A great cloud of steam greeted him, the whitish substance wisping off into the air to reveal.

A face.

A face with no skin, red and pink muscles, prominent eyebrows, a permanent scowl, seemingly endless rows of white teeth, and human eyes.

A face that towered over the Wall and cast a shadow on the houses fifty meters below. Eren had stood in that shadow once.

The Colossal Titan had returned.

**Another monster well slain. Once again, I deeply apologize for the late due date. I will try my best to compensate.**

**R&R!**


End file.
